*I received a year subscription to this app, Let’s Be Chefs, in return for my honest review. All opinions are my own.*
Meal planning can be tough. I always go to the grocery store with a list and the best of intentions. Then I proceed to fall off the wagon the next evening when I finally get the kids home after a day at work, and try to make something for dinner.
When Let’s Be Chefs offered me their meal planning app in return for a review I thought that was just the thing I needed to get my meal planning self on track!
The app is great. It lets you customize how many meals you’d like to cook in a week, and it provides the recipes, grocery list and the amount of time required to make each meal. There is also an alarm setting to remind you to start cooking so it can be ready at the time you want to eat. That is super handy.
You can rate each meal (before or after you make it) and with that the app learns your preferences and tailors the menu towards the meals you prefer. You can also mark favourites and substitute meals they suggest for ones you know you like. I rated a few recipes with avocados low (only because my family is not a fan, although I am!) and now I rarely get avocado meals suggested.
I have to be honest here: I have not made a single recipe from this app. Not because I don’t like the app, or because the meals don’t sound good (and pretty easy to make.) It’s just because of the time factor.
Our weeks are very busy (read about it here) and there are only 3 nights we cook at home. One of those nights is a Friday, and that’s usually our take-out or go out night. The days when I pick up the girls at school after 5 and get home I only have about 30 minutes to help with homework, prep and cook dinner, and get everyone eating before a) everyone starves to death or b) we’re encroaching on Rose’s bedtime and she gets “too tired to eat!!”
Let’s Be Chefs is a fabulous app for those people who are already working on meal planning, or for those who have more than 30 minutes to prep, cook and eat dinner routinely. The photos of the dinners make me hungry every time I look at them, the recipes are very well laid out, and the time estimates look very close to how long I feel it would really take me to make these dinners.
If you’re looking for a service to help you on your meal planning journey, I suggest looking into Let’s Be Chefs. They have a week free trial if you want to see what it’s about. I recommend reading through the FAQs as there are some great questions in there!
Some day I will figure out the best way to get my family eating my home-cooked meals (without making the “Eww…what is this?” faces.) The time crunch is what I struggle with the most in my daily working parent life. If you have any other suggestions for ways to make healthy, yummy, quick dinners I’m all ears…
~Jess
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4 Comments
It sounds like a great app. I’m always looking for new menu plans. I like that it gives you an alarm for when you need to start cooking, this is one of my downfall, I often leave it too late to start, or start to early and then I get complaints because with a big family it’s important we have our meals on time to suit everyone.
#MMBC
The app really is great. It’s too bad I can’t get my act together to get meal planning going in my life. I’m going to keep trying to make it work!
~Jess
We don’t eat until 8:30-9 pm most weekdays, I hear you about the lack of meal prep time !
I wish my kids didn’t have to get up so early in the morning – then we could have a little more evening time. They get on the bus at 7:45am so Rose goes to bed by 7:30pm in order to get the sleep she needs to not be a total basket case the next day! But we manage. Thanks for the comment Lea!
~Jess